This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
As the Trump administration expands its immigration crackdown around the country, President Trump is making it easier for a select few to obtain a U.S. visa. Earlier this week, Trump officially launched a program that provides a pathway for wealthy noncitizens to receive expedited permission to live and work in the U.S. For a million-dollar payment, visitors can obtain a “Trump Gold Card,” that promises to fast-track U.S. residency applications “in record time.” The administration says it will soon offer a $5 million “Trump Platinum Card,” allowing visitors to also avoid paying some U.S. taxes.
Meanwhile, new U.S. Customs and Border Protection rules published this week would require visitors from 42 countries on the visa waiver program to provide up to five years of their social media history, along with telephone numbers, email addresses and biometric data, including DNA, face, fingerprint and iris scans.
We’re joined now by Shev Dalal-Dheini, director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
This is a stunning new development. If you can talk about what these two groupings are, one who will be fast-tracked to live in this country if you could afford between $1 million and $5 million to get your Trump Platinum or Gold Card, and the other group, who normally can come in and out, like, let’s say, people from Spain, of the United States, now have to give five or 10 years of social media information, telephone numbers they have used, biometric data? Explain.
SHEV DALAL–DHEINI: Yeah. Good morning, and thank you for having me.
I think what this is clearly indicating is we’re showing a very clear sign of what the Trump immigration policy is. If you’re wealthy, if you can pay to play, then you’re welcome to come to the United States. But if you’re not — if you’re coming as a tourist, or you’re, you know, coming to seek humanitarian protection — then we’re going to make it much tougher for you to come here and really put a lot of hurdles along the way in the guise of security and vetting.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And could you talk about how this is turning upside down the historic understanding of what immigration was to the United States? To what degree does the administration need any authorization from Congress to institute these changes?
SHEV DALAL–DHEINI: Look, I mean, I think Congress sets forth our immigration laws. That is their responsibility. And you can’t create a new visa category, like the Gold Card or the Platinum Card, just by executive order only. That’s not heard of. Only Congress has that authority. You know, we are really concerned about the fact that there is no legal authority. We don’t even know what the legal analysis is behind this Gold Card, because, typically, as I said, Congress sets forth the policy, the laws, and the agency interprets those laws. But when it interprets those laws, they have to do detailed analysis about how this will work, what are the requirements, how is it justified under existing laws, and then, what’s the economic impact of these new proposals. We have nothing. All we have is a website and a form.
AMY GOODMAN: So, you had this kind of news conference this week, with Lutnick sitting next to President Trump. And you had these comments of Lutnick: “Let’s bring in the top of the best. Let’s help them grow America and build America. Why should we take people who are below average?” And then you have the Trump Platinum Card, the Trump Gold Card, and you have then all this information that countries where people usually come and go from the United States have to now give. Who is going to take in this information, this massive amount of information of all the social platform addresses people have, handles people have, phone numbers people have had? What do they do with this?
SHEV DALAL–DHEINI: Yeah, so, to your first point — right? — I just wanted to make clear: We are already bringing in the best and the brightest in the United States. The visas numbers that the Trump card is going to take away are being taken away from recipients of EB-1 and EB-2 visas, which are for people of extraordinary ability or those who are in our national interest. Those are Nobel Prize winners, award-winning artists and athletes, multinational CEOs, doctors and engineers. So, you know, the best and the brightest who are contributing to American society are already coming here, and they are already doing what we need them to do.
Now, to your second question about the social media vetting, this is just a real, like, fishing expedition, right? There is no evidence that we have seen that combing through years and decades — and in certain instances, they’re asking for, you know, your last email addresses for 10 years and your phone numbers and the family history. That does nothing to discover a possible, you know, security risk or a terrorist. And so, I think what it’s only going to cause is a lot more delays in our legal immigration system. It’s going to create backlogs. It’s going to take the time and energy of people who are supposed to be adjudicating these cases at USCIS, at CBP, at the Department of State, and have them focus on, really, what I said before, a fishing expedition.
AMY GOODMAN: Shev Dalal-Dheini, we will continue to follow this. Thanks so much for being with us, director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
